A growing number of companies have used call centers to handle interactions or communications between customers and potential customers by way of telephone. These call centers provide inbound services, for example, to handle queries from customers to customer service representatives (CSR) and outbound services for managing outbound telephone calls to potential customers for telemarketing and to existing customers for collections. Some call centers are also capable of providing blended inbound and outbound services. Call centers have recently expanded to include other types of communication such as e-mail and web chat, and are now commonly referred to as contact centers.
A typical contact center 10, FIG. 1, includes a number of different components. Communication systems 12 establish the communications over various contact channels. The communication systems 12 can include one or more e-mail/web servers 14 for establishing one or more e-mail contact channels and/or web communication channels. The communication systems 12 can also include a PBX/ACD 16 for establishing telephony channels.
Agent workstations 18 are used by agents to handle the communications over the contact channels, such as inbound and outbound telephone calls, e-mails, web communications, and any other form of communication supported by the contact center 10. Each of the agent workstations 18 includes a data terminal, such as a PC 20, for receiving and transmitting data and an audio communications device, such as a headset 22, for receiving and transmitting voice communications. A supervisor workstation 24 can be used by a supervisor or system administrator to oversee the agents and activities in the contact center 10.
A host system 26 stores information pertaining to the customer, potential customer, or other contacted party. The host system 26 typically includes one or more databases of customer or potential customer information, such as customer records, including customer name and telephone number, account information, and the like.
A contact center management system 28 monitors and manages the contact center activities, resources and overall performance. The contact center management system 28 may incorporate the Email/web server as well as the ACD/PBX or these items may be provided externally. The contact center management system 28 typically includes one or more servers, for example, implemented using a Windows 95/98 or NT operating system or a Unix based operating system, and including software for managing the contact center. One example of contact center management software is available from Davox Corporation under the name ENSEMBLE™. The components of the contact center 10 are typically interconnected using a local area network (LAN) 29, such as an ethernet.
In a typical contact center, the agents at the agent workstations 18 are assigned to contact channel tasks such that the agents will handle events that occur on a contact channel within the assigned task. Contact channel events typically include inbound calls, outbound calls, e-mails, and web chat sessions. The agent's state is the current working or operational activity being performed by an agent within a particular task. For example, an agent in a work inbound state is actively handling an inbound call event. An agent in an idle outbound state is an agent assigned to an outbound task but not currently handling an outbound call event. One function of the contact center management system 28 is to establish contact channel queues (not shown) for contact channel events that cannot be handled immediately by an agent.
Although the integration of multi-media contact channels in a single contact center expands the communication capabilities of the contact center, the effective management of traffic on the contact channels is important to a company's successful use of the contact center. Various factors can affect the productivity of the contact center, such as idle agents and a significant increase of activity on a certain contact channel. If there is a significant increase in the volume of inbound calls and a decrease in the volume of e-mails, for example, the customer service for the calls in the inbound hold queue will suffer while the agents currently assigned to the e-mail queue may be unproductive. Although some existing call centers have a call-blending feature, this feature is limited to inbound and outbound telephone channels and does not allow agent resources to be efficiently controlled across all contact channels.
Accordingly, a system and method is needed for controlling or managing the allocation of agents across all contact channels to maintain consistent customer service as well as consistent agent productivity.